Might sound funny, but remember when the "Run & Shoot" was the hot new offense to run. The Houston Oilers probably ran it the best in the early 1990's. Does anyone think that a revival or variation of the Run & Shoot would work for a team in today's NFL?

(Note that the Falcons playoff was played in a rainstorm, causing Gibbs to eliminate the long-passing game. As a memory-jogger, that was the game in which fans frisbeed yellow seat-covers down at The Great All Star Neon Deion Sanders as he waited for a kickoff.)

And the pass-happy Tecmo Superbowl (I always ran the ball anyway). Though I think that Tecmo came out before teams began routinely destroying the Run and Shoot.

Question: could the R&S have facilitated the end of the "read and react" era of defenses and helped bring us into an era of much more aggressive, attacking style of play? It seems like one of the best answers to a consistent 5 lineman / 4 receiver set is a few well timed/aimed blitzes down the middle and tough play on the receivers.

"I’m never under the assumption that you draft for need. You draft the best available football player on the board. ... Because, in the long run, they are the ones who will help you win the most games." - Scot McCloughan

Question: could the R&S have facilitated the end of the "read and react" era of defenses and helped bring us into an era of much more aggressive, attacking style of play? It seems like one of the best answers to a consistent 5 lineman / 4 receiver set is a few well timed/aimed blitzes down the middle and tough play on the receivers.

Interesting question, FFA.

- We know that Buddy Ryan made the NFL notice the all-blitz-all-the-time 46 defense in '85, although, I think the Bears had used it in '84.

- We also know that the R&S Lions humiliated Dave Wannstadt's Dallas defense in the playoffs after the '91 season. On every play, there was one Detroit receiver open somewhere. I don;t know what defense the Cowboys were playing, but it was not the right one (note: that's a joking paraphrase of Richie Petibon. Reporter: Richie, how can your Redskins possibly stop an offense that beat the Cowboys so badly? Petibon: I don't know, but I guess we won't do what Dallas did.)

- Petibon, Pardee, and George Allen -- they're like a family in defensive coaching -- were always mixing attack with react, changing the look of their defense as the offense broke huddle: in general, making the offense read and react to them, rather than the reverse.

- So...I don't know. I know that the first play in the Lions/Redskins NFC Championship was a crushing sack on Erik Kramer by THE Charles Mann. Kramer fumbled, the team of destiny recovered, scored a TD, and the game was over. I can't remember if the Redskins blitzed, although I remember that Mann rushed past Barry Sanders so fast that it looked like Sanders was waving "hello / good-bye". That suggests Sanders was looking at someone else, so maybe it was a blitz.

- A real defensive coaching expert would have to answer this definitively.

The biggest problem was protecting the A gap playside when the LB being blocked by the back dogged the A gap. Because the QB was on a tight roll out to that side, it was difficult for the RB to clear the QB and get to the A gap dogger. If the PST and PSG squeezed to the dogger, then the RB was blocking a big DE who was in the face of the QB on the tight roll. When June Jones, Gilbride, and some others ran the offense, they eliminated the tight roll which made protecting the A gap easier.